Animal handling apparatus
AssigneeFire Fighting Enterprises Limited
InventorsIan Robert Hamilton, David Murray Underwood Alley
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
This invention relates to an animal handling machine, in which at least one animal may be held for operation or inspection in an operating station while another animal is trapped in a receiving station. On completion of an operation on the first-mentioned animal, the machine may be operated to simultaneously transfer the trapped animal in the receiving station to the operating station and transfer the first-mentioned animal from the operating station to a release station, thereby allowing for the operation or inspection of individual animals or a large number of such animals in a continuous manner.
Claims11
An animal handling apparatus having an animal receiving station, operating station, and release station comprising
- means for trapping and holding an animal in the receiving station, and
- means for inverting the animal and transferring it toward an operating station, maintaining it in the operating station while another animal is trapped and held in the receiving station, and transferring it toward the release station while the other animal is inverted and transferred toward the operating station including
- a base frame having
- means for providing a substantially horizontal axis,
- rotatable frame means mounted on said axis,
- a plurality of said trapping and holding means fixed to said rotatable frame means for movement therewith, and
- means for locking said rotatable frame means so that each of said trapping and holding means may be temporatily fixed in the receiving station and the operating station comprising
- disc means mounted for simultaneous rotation with said rotatable frame and having
- detent means located about the periphery thereof, equal in number to the number of said trapping and holding means,
- latch means pivotally mounted on said base frame adjacent the periphery of said disc means for selective engagement with said detent means, and
- linkage means, actuatable by an operator of the apparatus, connected to said latch means for selective disengagement of said latch means from said disc means to allow rotation of said rotatable frame.
An animal handling apparatus comprising
- a base frame,
- a rotatable frame supported on said base frame for rotation about a substantially horizontal axis and having
- a plurality of animal holding cradles attached thereto, each said cradle including
- a first and
- a second sidewall, said sidewalls being pivotally interconnected for relative movement
- lever means pivotally connected to said base frame and located so as to act against one of said first and second sidewalls to urge it toward the other of said sidewalls and trap an animal therebetween,
- means for actuating said lever means when an operator observes that an animal is in position to be trapped between said side walls, and
- means for releasably locking said side walls in positions relative to one another to hold an animal therebetweeen during rotation of said rotatable frame.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.